


Illuminate

by imthehotgirl



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, Liam's Parents - Freeform, M/M, McCall Pack, Minor Liam Dunbar/Hayden Romero, POV Liam, POV Theo Raeken, Season/Series 06 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imthehotgirl/pseuds/imthehotgirl
Summary: Liam Dunbar didn’t hold much stock with the whole ‘soulmates’ idea. Quite honestly he thought it was bullshit. Theo hadn’t been prepared for Liam. Not in the slightest. This is the story of how they became more to each other while trying to deal with everything Beacon Hills threw at them.





	Illuminate

**Author's Note:**

> First let me say I do not own these characters. No disrespect is meant. Next, I have wanted to write a Soulmates!AU fic for YEARS. Of course it would end up being Thiam, which I am absolutely over the moon about. :o) I hope you enjoy!

When you’re born you have a specific color scheme assigned to you that follows you around like your very own colorful shadow. But once a child turns eleven the color fades to gray and remains that way until they find their soulmate, a person who has the exact same color scheme but in reverse order.

It’s by chance that a person finds their soulmate, but once they do their shadow is no longer gray but bright Technicolor.

Liam Dunbar didn’t hold much stock with the whole ‘soulmates’ idea. Quite honestly he thought it was bullshit. His own mother had grown tired of waiting for her soulmate, married his father in the meantime only to have him leave her and Liam when Liam was young once he’d found the woman he was destined for. A few years later his mom met and fell in love with Dr. Geyer. It wasn’t long after that Liam’s mom realized she’d found her soulmate in the man, and it wasn’t too long after that the two of them were married and Liam began calling him Dad.

Even with quite a few of his friends already having found (and even lost) their soulmates as teenagers, Liam was content staying in a relationship with Hayden Romero simply so he wouldn’t be alone whenever the pack got together and did group activities. Because naturally, in Beacon Hills, the whole soulmates business wasn’t enough insanity. There had to be supernatural creatures to make things even crazier.

Being a part of Scott McCall’s pack wasn’t always fun, but it wasn’t always craziness either. Liam had plenty opportunities to sneak off with Hayden so the two of them could make out or just spend time with one another away from the pack.

When Theo Raeken came back into Scott and Stiles’ lives Liam didn’t think much of it at first. Until the older boy (chimera really) tried to destroy the McCall pack and get him to kill Scott during one of the worst full moons of his life. So when Theo was sent to Hell (where they all thought he rightfully belonged) Liam figured that was the end of it. But then the Ghost Riders descended upon Beacon Hills. And before Liam fully realized what was happening he’d come up with the fairly asinine idea to bring Theo back so they’d have more reinforcements in bringing Stiles and the others they’d lost home. Shortly after that Liam lost Hayden to the Wild Hunt and all he did have was Theo. Theo who came to his rescue and protected him, keeping him safe from the Ghost Riders without being told to do so by anyone. As Liam rode off unsteadily on the horse he’d managed to wrangle thanks to Theo’s help in capturing its rider in the first place, hoping to help the rest of his friends, Liam couldn’t shake the disappointment in realizing he’d more than likely die that night without ever finding his soulmate.

**

Theo remembered when he was young having his colors seem to lick at his heels, laughing aloud as they followed after him when he and Tara would run through the woods by their house playing games of chase with one another. And he also remembered how when he’d followed after The Dread Doctors how the colors in his scheme would bounce around the darkened basements and sewers that became his new home.

When he turned eleven and his colors disappeared Theo did everything he could to forget that for as long as he could remember prior to them vanishing he’d once had a dark red, yellowish gold, hazel and bright blue shadow wherever he went.

He didn’t miss them. They would’ve made him vulnerable doing the things he did in attempting to get Scott’s pack to trust him, in making them allies. It didn’t matter if once upon a time his colors had represented hope for him. He knew that notion was long dead and buried. What was hope but a mocking, tantalizing glimpse into a future he would never know?

Theo hadn’t been prepared for Liam. Not in the slightest. The way the pup had wormed his way into every thought, every decision Theo made without even realizing what he was doing. It was infuriating at first. But then Theo was saving the beta’s ass for reasons that were still unclear if he examined them too closely. He guided Liam. And supported his decisions. The unthinkable was happening. Theo was daring to hope again. All because he had a friend in Liam. They trusted one another even if neither one of them dared speak it aloud. It was there between them. Theo could feel it. So in retrospect he really shouldn’t have been surprised by what happened next.

**

Shortly after his sixteenth birthday Liam had gone to his mother, unable to shake off the feeling of sliding down an increasingly slippery slope. Yet that feeling was tinged with the faintest bit of freedom, of wonder that he had as a kid when the idea of soulmates filled him with uncharted possibility and endless dreams rather than the sour taste of bitterness and unmitigated disaster.

With that small flare of hope burning a brilliant fire in his belly he boldly asked his mother what his color scheme had been when he was younger. She gave him a small, sad smile, a bit lost in memories of him when he’d been little.

She patted the couch next to him and he sat down next to her, sighing softly as he leaned his head into the crook of her neck and shoulder, and she began to gently massage his head with her fingers like she’d done when he would wake up from nightmares in the middle of the night when he was a little boy. But now he found that because he was one of those creatures that ‘went bump in the night’ his night terrors were far less frequent than they used to be. 

He smiled, simultaneously hearing and feeling her sigh as she searched for the right words to describe the beauty of his color scheme.

First there was blue. She told him she’d always thought of it as the blue of his eyes. Next came hazel. She couldn’t quite explain it, but the color had left her feeling a tinge of sadness whenever she looked at it while simultaneously filling her with an overabundance of joy for Liam’s future. And then came the yellowish gold and dark red, neither of which she really understood. But she told Liam she imagined they were the colors in his color scheme meant to make sense once he found his soulmate.

He wiped at his eyes, removing evidence of the tears that’d unexpectedly sprung up as his mother spoke. She’d hugged him, kissing his forehead, thanking him for giving her the chance to explain to him the magnificence of seeing his colors through her eyes.

Now being seventeen without having a girlfriend like he once did he found himself aching a bit more every day to connect with the person meant to be his soulmate. And thinking back on the conversation he’d had with his mother a year ago he had a fairly good gut feeling of who that person was.

**

Hearing Gabe’s plea that his gunshot wounds, the pain of them hurt, Theo carefully rose to his feet, silently maneuvering passed Liam and Melissa until he stood in front of the other boy, kneeling in front of him and gently grasping Gabe’s arm in his own, beginning to relieve the discomfort Gabe felt. Theo drew in a startled breath when he realized it was working. He was actively taking someone else’s pain rather than inflicting it.

“Does it hurt anymore?” Theo finally asked Gabe.

“No,” Gabe said, blood filling his mouth as he spoke.

“Good,” Theo murmured, averting his gaze to the floor as the light left the other boy’s eyes. He barely noticed when Nolan and Melissa came over, lifting Gabe’s body to a gurney and wheeled him off to the morgue.

He glanced upward feeling Liam put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, you okay?” Liam asked him gently. Theo shrugged once Liam helped him back to his feet.

“That was the first time I’ve ever done that,” he admitted softly.

“I know,” Liam replied, a small smile gracing his features as they looked at one another.

Before he could prevent the instinct to do so, Theo gripped Liam’s wrist dragging the werewolf closer until his chin was tucked into Liam’s shoulder, his hands fisting the back of the younger boy’s shirt, relief flooding him. “I know it’s selfish of me but I’m glad that wasn’t…that wasn’t you on the floor back there. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to control my inner-wolf from going completely ballistic on the next hunter I saw if you were…” he trailed off, swallowing convulsively.

“Theo,” Liam croaked, his eyes softening further. “It’s okay. We’re alive. We’re safe. It’s over, Theo. It’s over.”

“Dammit. I know-I know I shouldn’t, but Liam, I love you,” Theo said, cupping Liam’s face in his hands, surging forward and kissing Liam fiercely, pouring everything he had into it as if it were both the first and last time he would ever get a shot like this.

Having closed his eyes to enjoy the moment they were experiencing further, Liam blindly reached out, one hand lightly held Theo’s wrist while they kissed as the other hand came to rest at his waist.

When they both reluctantly broke the kiss, Liam’s hand slowly shifted from his grasp on Theo’s wrist to his arm and he began to gently run his hand along the chimera’s arm in a leisurely, soothing motion.

“You know, Theo, you should never apologize for saying you love me especially right before you kiss me,” he murmured.

“But what about your soulmate?” Theo demanded worriedly, his eyes flooding with concern.

Liam’s eyes danced with amusement. “Have you looked at your shadow lately?”

Theo gasped softly when he turned around to find his color scheme, which he hadn’t seen since the night before his eleventh birthday, seeming to be nipping playfully at his heels while simultaneously dancing along the floor. “How did you know, Liam?” he asked hoarsely, turning his attention to Liam once again, the hope he’d felt long ago seeming to resurface tenfold the longer he stood in front of the werewolf.

Liam reached out, his fingers interlocking with Theo’s as they held hands. “Because Theo, you’re my soulmate,” he replied, his tears warm as they slid gradually down his face, giving Theo an equally warm smile.

Theo glanced over Liam’s shoulder to find the color scheme he was so familiar with but in reverse.

“And you’re mine?” he asked hesitantly, feeling his stomach swoop as the hope he’d cautiously begun believing in again took flight, consuming him with its warmth in safety, love and a sense of finally having come home.

Liam nodded in response to Theo’s question once again capturing Theo’s mouth in another kiss. When they broke apart they smiled at each other, Theo taking a hold of Liam’s hand in his own as they made their way through the hospital hallways.

“We’ll have to find Mason and Corey, Nolan too if he wants to come with us, and get to the high school to check in with the others,” Liam said. He caught Theo grinning at him. “What?” he demanded suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Nothing,” Theo insisted, continuing to smirk at him. When Liam persisted, needing an answer, Theo huffed out a breath, relenting. “I dunno, man. I just…It’s this whole ‘take charge’ attitude you’ve got going for you.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t?” Liam frowned.

“No, not at all,” Theo insisted. “I’m saying it’s about damn time,” he implored.

“What?” Liam whispered hoarsely, stopping them from walking any further, feeling a bit shell-shocked meeting Theo’s gaze, the realization that the chimera wasn’t kidding slowly sinking in.

“Don’t worry. We’re in this together. And Mason and Corey will help out. Nolan too if you want him. But from my vantage point you’re gonna make a damn good Alpha, Liam,” Theo murmured, nodding meaningfully at the dark red in their color schemes, his lips brushing Liam’s head and squeezing the other boy’s hand reassuringly as they began to walk again.

“I love you, Theo,” Liam replied once they reached the elevator. “What now?” he asked when the elevator doors slid open.

“Now we fulfill the fantasy I’ve had of the two of us making out in this elevator and then we go execute that plan of yours,” Theo said, winking at Liam.

“I can do that,” Liam agreed with a laugh as the two of them stepped onto the elevator together. The colors from their separate spectrums seemed to meld as one as they melted into each other, the elevator doors sliding closed as easily as they had opened.

Theo knew that they still had a lot to discuss, but he still felt like he had initially when he first kissed Liam. Yes, it was a relief to find out he was Liam’s soulmate for several different reasons, but if he had to he would’ve fought against their supposed ‘destiny’ if it meant keeping Liam in his life exactly like this. It really was that simple for him. And he had no doubt in his mind that the future Alpha he held in his arms felt the same.

SUDDENLY MY EYES ARE OPEN  
EVERYTHING COMES INTO FOCUS  
WE ARE ALL ILLUMINATED  
~ ‘Illuminated’ by Hurts, 2010

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! I have to admit I'm a bit tempted to expand on this story at some point. We'll see. :o) But yup, this is apparently what happens to me as a fic writer after my first PrideFest and then ODing on Thiam shortly afterwards. :P ;o) I'll take it! <3 Kudos/Comment if you so desire. Thank you, loves!


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